loonyblog.

It’s almost 2008, and there’s just ten weeks and counting until the birth of our child. It’s a little scary, but I’ve sort of accepted that there’s no real preparing for this. We’ve got (or are getting) all the stuff we need, we’ve taken (or still have to take) the classes, and I’m reading the required text, but really, there’s not much we can do right now but wait, and accept that in ten weeks (give or take) we’ll have a screaming, smelly new addition to our family.

In the meantime, I’m preparing my daughter’s digital life. I’ve registered her domain name (which I can’t say, since we’re not telling anyone her name yet), and will make sure that her digital baby book goes online as shortly after birth as possible.

But mostly, it’s just waiting right now. And enjoying my spare time while I have it.

Speaking of my soon-to-be-born daughter, here’s the latest decidedly less blob-like ultrasound picture (more here):

If there’s one thing I love, it’s fan-made movie trailers for movies that will never, ever get made. Here’s a really good one, for a movie called “Grayson” that has the one-time Robin coming out of retirement to avenge the death of Batman:

I love all the little fanboy references towards the end. So yeah, it’ll never, ever, ever get made, but it sure is fun. Although personally, I’d have gone with Nightwing over the old Robin costume…seeing a grown man in that is kind of creepy.

According to Coming Soon, Kristin Kreuk, the alliterative actress who plays Lana Lang on Smallville (shown here in one of her many evil episodes, courtesy of KryptonSite) has been cast as Chun-Li in the upcoming Street Fighter movie.

I don’t think I really need to say anything more about this. Oh sure, I could point out that maybe it would have made more sense to cast someone like Ziyi Zhang, or maybe that the entire idea of a Street Fighter movie is doomed to failure, but what’s the point? This is the next project from the guy who brought you the Doom movie in a subgenre where the best movie to date is Mortal Kombat.

So yes. This casting is perfectly in line with my expectations.

From the Hollywood plunders my childhood department comes the news that Tim Burton is helming a new adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. AAiW and Through the Looking Glass are collectively my favorite book of all-time. I credit them largely for turning me into the oddball that I am. And so it’s with genuine hope that I ask Hollywood, please don’t screw this up.

I’m a big fan of the Disney animated movie. Yes, it takes major liberties with the text, but it captures the spirit nicely (in some places better than others). Plus it’s a masterpiece of hand drawn animation.

So with that in mind, I have no problem creating a new movie based on AAiW, and Tim Burton seems like a good choice. Provided, of course, he doesn’t attempt to make a modern interpretation of the book, and he sticks to the source material as much as possible. Because of its oddities (and there are many), people have attempted to see things in the text that simply aren’t there. It is not, for example, a metaphor for drug use, no matter how many people want to believe the Caterpillar is smoking something wacky in his hookah.

What it is, however, is a children’s story. And any film adaptation will hopefully respect that. Don’t make it dark, don’t make it gothic, and for god’s sake, don’t make it creepy, like Burton’s own Charlie and the Chocolate Factory adaptation (or the Gene Wilder version, for that matter, which I’ve never liked).

Just please, Hollywood. Don’t screw this up. Or you’ll hear from me personally.

Apparently one hideous new style wasn’t enough for Archie Comics, because they’ve done it again, this time redesigning Jughead with, “a dynamic new style” (thanks to mike_ch for the heads-up). Here’s a look at the ghastly results:

The problem here is that the closer Jughead gets to reality, the more obvious it becomes that he’s a total stoner. All he needs in this image is a bong in one hand to perfectly realize his potential.

Fortunately this is apparently just one story in that digest, so the old style still exists. And with any luck, this is just an experiment that will go away, never to be seen again.

The Digital Bits has posted their review of the unbelievably awesome Blade Runner: The Final Cut boxed set. I’ve already posted here about my love for Blade Runner and how much I’m looking forward to this set, but I just need to restate my geek love yet again. After the OMG ITS AMAZING Final Cut version of the movie and the OMG IT INCLUDES THE WORK PRINT CUT of the movie, I’m most looking forward to seeing the new 214 minute (!) documentary on the second disc, which among other things, actually has a new interview with Harrison Ford. The ‘Bits says it’s great, and I tend to trust their opinion on these things.

Anyway, it’s almost here! I can’t wait. It’s coming out at just the right time…there won’t be squat on my TiVo, and work will be nonexistent (the whole industry shuts down that week), so I’ll have plenty of time to watch the same movie five times. w00p.

It’s that time of year again when everyone makes up their best of the year lists…I may not be a journalist anymore, but there’s no reason why I can’t write up my own.

A few notes about the list: I can’t pretend to have played most of the games released this year, or even most of the big name games (I haven’t for example, gotten around to trying Call of Duty 4, Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted, Mario Galaxy or several others yet). So consider this the top ten list of games I actually played this year.

10. Rock Band (360)

9. Everyday Shooter (PS3)

8. Halo 3 (360)

7. Catan (360)

6. Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (PC)

5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (360)

4. Portal (PC)

3. Space Giraffe (360)

2. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)

1. Mass Effect (360)

Runners Up: flOw (PS3), Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (PSP), World in Conflict (PC), The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS), Puzzle Quest (DS), MotorStorm (PS3), Team Fortress 2 (PC), Carcassonne (360), Crackdown (360), The Eye of Judgement (PS3).

Platform breakdown of top ten games: four 360 retail games, two Live Arcade games, one PS3 retail game, one PSN downloadable game and two PC games.

It’s not a bad list if I do say so myself. Admittedly, I’m only a few hours into Mass Effect, but I already know it’s the best game I’ve played this year. There are so many things I love about it, and even though combat isn’t one of them, it’s a great, great game.

You might notice that I put Guitar Hero III well above Rock Band…this is because I think it’s a better game. Rock Band is great, particularly when you play with other people, but they seem to have left something out of the game…there’s very little incentive to play through the solo tours, and the game doesn’t do a very good job at making you want to keep playing to get higher scores (unlike Guitar Hero III, which is all about the stars/points).

So anyway, there’s my list. Since I’m not going away for the week between Christmas and New Year’s (except for that weekend, when we’re driving to L.A.), I’m planning on checking out a lot of the games I haven’t tried yet…particularly Call of Duty 4 and Assassin’s Creed.

The first images from the Speed Racer movie have been released. This, in case you weren’t aware, is the adaptation of the unbelievably silly anime show, brought to big budget life by the Wachowski brothers. I suppose it’s a good thing that it looks as ridiculous as the series, and they didn’t attempt to make it look realistic or serious in any way, but I can’t help but wonder why this even exists at all. Is there really a fanbase that’s asking for this? And does this dorky franchise actually have this kind of appeal? If they’re smart, this will be sold as a kids movie. The stoners will want to see it because they’re creepy like that.

I think this speaks for itself:

(Thanks to bawbeh on the shack for that)

There’s not a whole lot in this industry that can actually make my jaw drop…the EA/Bioware buyout earlier this year definitely was one of them, but that’s nothing compared to today’s news that Vivendi and Activision are merging to form Activision Blizzard, which will be on paper, the largest publisher in the industry. That also makes them the worst named publisher, and yes, I’m including Focus Home when I say that.

Assuming this actually gets approved by regulators, this will have lasting repercussions for many, many years…2008 is going to be an interesting year.